The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 42



Only Krnovel

Episode 42

“Quil.”

Quillvien ran a hand through his pounding hair.

“Stop sleeping and get up. It’s late.”

I got up, pressing the space between my eyebrows. I let out a deep sigh, and pure white breath rose up.

“You didn’t manage the spark?”

A blackened fireplace was visible.

“What are you talking about when there’s no firewood?”

Drich smiled and tightened his shoelaces.

“Was it so?”

Quilbian swept his bearded face away from him. He climbed out of the covers and shoved his feet into his shoes.

Oh, it was so cold that my eyes widened.

“It’s a stroke of luck that I woke up without freezing to death.”

“What I’m saying is.”

Drich threw his glove, saying to hurry. He caught the flying glove with his right hand and stood up.

As I stepped outside, the purple dawn air greeted me. An old woman wrapped up tightly was walking down the street carrying two bundles.

“let’s go.”

Drich said, tapping it.

I walked along the street and turned into an alley on the right. I saw a studio in the distance.

A workshop with a light on, alone, in the middle of a dark guild building. As I entered, a large pig stopped sawing and greeted me.

“Oink oink?”

“Okay, we’re here.”

“honey?”

A large pig came waddling over, holding out a mug of coffee and smiling.

“thank you.”

I took the cup and took a sip. Coffee in the early morning is truly the joy of life.

A little pig opened the door and came in. It had started to snow, and the pig’s hat was covered in white snow.

“Oink, ok, ok.”

“Are you going to freeze to death? Don’t worry. If you do freeze to death, I’ll roast you and eat it deliciously.”

At Drich’s words the little pig squeaked. Oink, oink, oink!

Quilbian smiled slightly as he watched them grumbling. It was amazing how they could fight about the same thing every day.

Above all, I want to roast a pig and eat it.

How scary… … .

“hmm?”

Quillvian looked down at his mug.

Something is strange.

I don’t know what was strange, but it was strange anyway.

“Drich.”

“why?”

“Isn’t that a little strange?”

“What is so strange about this, beyond any possibility?”

“that is…….”

Quilbian put down his glass and looked at his two pig brothers: the pig that baked bricks and the pig that cut wooden planks.

It was an everyday and natural sight.

Why do I feel awkward?

It was a time when I was thinking about it for a long time.

The door opened again. A chilly air enveloped the studio.

“Hey! It’s cold, close the door quickly.”

Drich said nervously. Quilbian looked back.

Twella was unbuttoning her scarf as she said, “I’m sorry.”

“… … What did you just say?”

Quilbian looked at Twella and asked.

“what?”

“I just said that.”

“Are you really going to notice that? You said something to me because I closed the door a little late. If you keep doing that, I’ll just open it wide?”

“No, that’s not it. Seriously, what did you just say?”

Twella tilted her head with an expression of incomprehension, then opened her mouth.

“Sorry.”

*

“……under.”

The inside of my mouth was cracking.

Where am I?

I struggled to move my body on the floor, and soon realized that I couldn’t see anything.

A sigh escaped my tongue.

Is he dead?

Or are you alive?

All other senses except sight were fine. I moved my hand. I could feel rough things.

Grass, sand, and pebbles.

“Is anyone there?”

I found someone with a murky voice.

What happened?

Clearly in that woman’s hands…

My whole body trembled as I thought of the woman who came down from the sky. What was it? It had a human form, but it wasn’t human.

Then a goblin?

I don’t know. Even though I saw it with my own two eyes, I couldn’t tell anything other than that it had the appearance of a woman.

And I couldn’t even see the nak.

“Twella! You fucking bitch! I’m alive! I’m alive!”

A hollow voice stretched out without any meaning.

Silence fell.

Quilbian stood up carefully, feeling for the floor.

Fortunately, the limbs were intact. I thought they were just flattened out like dead babies.

Ugh, I feel sick to my stomach.

The scene of massacre, so horrific that it seemed unreal, came back to me.

His eyes had lost their function, but his brain showed him the past clearly.

Quilbian stumbled and fell. He wanted to vent his anger, but nothing came out.

I just retched for several minutes.

I didn’t even shed any tears, as if all the moisture had dried up.

“Fuck.”

All I could do was curse.

“Just kill me! Kill me cleanly! Why! Why on earth!”

He curled up into a ball, letting out nothing but empty cries.

“… … Just kill me.”

*

How many days have passed?

I was keenly aware of how much our sense of time depended on sight.

Since I couldn’t see ahead, time seemed to pass slowly.

Bam.

Quilbian slowly touched the thing at his fingertips. It was rough tree bark.

As soon as I leaned my back against the tree and caught my breath, the thirst I had forgotten about struck my brain.

I was so thirsty I thought I was going crazy.

I gathered saliva under my tongue and swallowed it with difficulty.

It seemed like it had been several days since I had peed or pooped. I don’t know the exact date though.

“……please.”

It was only for a moment that he cursed the world, hated ‘that woman’ and Twella, and became evil.

When I woke up from a faint, anger was no longer an emotion I cared about, and I just wanted to live.

Strangely enough, I really wanted to live.

Even after being treated like that and losing my eyes, I didn’t want to let go of the breath I was holding on to.

If the owner saw you, he would probably say, “You’re a tough guy.”

He survived even when the kids fell to their deaths in the warehouse.

An irresistible fate?

If there really is such a thing, then maybe I am destined to live.

Even now, I am still surviving like a cockroach.

“Eww!”

I walked carefully on my knees, but I ended up falling down. My body rolled around and around along the slope.

The fear doubled because I couldn’t see ahead. What if it was a cliff? What if there was a rock in the middle?

I covered my head with both hands and curled up as much as I could. A strong impact hit my side and my body sank downward.

and.

with a splash!

The water accepted the body.

I flailed my hands and feet, then soon realized that my feet were deep enough to touch the floor.

I stood carefully.

“… … lived.”

He bent his knees, scooped up some water with both hands, and brought it to his mouth. The water was cool.

I didn’t drink it in a hurry.

There were more than ten alley kids who died after drinking water too quickly because they were hungry.

First, I wet my tongue and mouth, then I poured water down my throat, which felt like it was cracking.

“ha ha ha.”

A sad smile came out.

*

Is it night or day?

Quilvian couldn’t tell how much time had passed since they reached the stream.

When I got tired, I fell asleep and when I opened my eyes, I screamed.

When he realized that he was alone after screaming, he stopped everything, crouched down, and muttered.

“Please… … anyone… … .”

My feet were numb so I came to my senses.

It looks like he passed out again.

A rotten laugh came out. The water source was solved, but people cannot live on water alone.

After the intense thirst was quenched, what followed was a stomach-wrenching hunger.

It reminded me of the disgusting black porridge. If a goblin appeared holding the porridge, I was confident I would bow down and lick it.

I walked with the stream on my left.

I explored the surroundings without leaving the water.

“Hey, hey! For fuck’s sake, answer me!”

As time went by, I felt like I was becoming more and more reckless. No, was I never reckless to begin with?

At some point, I started hearing hallucinations.

The voices were varied. At first, I ignored them, but gradually I began to listen to the hallucinations and respond to them.

Of course, communication wasn’t possible.

Still, I didn’t give up talking to myself disguised as conversation.

Because I really felt like I would go crazy if I kept my mouth shut.

“Yeah, you too, sleep well.”

It was time to answer while giggling.

Twella’s voice was heard.

I turned my head with a start. Why do I turn my neck toward the sound even though I know I can’t see it?

Twella told her story in a languid voice. The topics of conversation were varied.

Quilbian listened in silence.

I know. It’s a hallucination, and what Twella says is a fake piece of information woven together in my head.

“Twella.”

The hallucinations stopped.

“If you were going to do it, you should have done it right. You should have killed me. Then you would have hated me less.”

Twella’s voice, which had been quiet, came back to life.

Quilbian felt around on the floor for a stone and threw it in the direction of the sound.

“Please, please get out.”

Twella’s voice rose as if mocking Quilbian’s actions.

She whispered close to my ear, then started talking on the top of her head, and soon she was running around chattering.

“Die! Die!”

Quillvian hurled the stone into the darkness.

Hahaha, hahaha, hahaha.

A clear laughter lingered in my ears and then disappeared.

The most cruel thing a human can do to another human is to another human.

The words that Lil spoke became a red-hot iron that burned his whole body.

“… … This is so fucked up.”

Quilbian continued to cry, curled up into a ball.

I think it was because I drank a lot of water that I shed tears.

*

My eyes were blinded and my once sharp senses were becoming dull again.

Quillbian was convinced.

I’m going to die soon.

I struggled so much because I didn’t want to die, but in the end I died.

If I had one last wish, it would be to die comfortably as if I were sleeping.

Neither hatred nor sadness remained in his thin body.

Because emotions are a luxury.

I felt like my body was melting and sinking into the floor.

It becomes hazy and blurry.

This is the end.

So this is how it ends.

Was it all decided that day when I was sold to the landlord by my father’s hand?

Even if I held on tenaciously, was my life going to end up with fate grabbing me by the scruff of the neck and killing me?

“Fuck, why are you doing this to me?”

He said, mustering up his last bit of strength.

It was a will that no one listened to.

Now I can’t even hear hallucinations.

One by one they were being cut off.

It’s over, it’s fucking over.

That was when I thought about it.

Beep.

From far away, a sharp cry was heard.

Hallucinations?

The sharp cries characteristic of birds of prey gradually came closer. The sound of flapping wings could also be heard.

It’s not an auditory hallucination.

I don’t know where the strength came from, but Quilbian raised his upper body.

Something hit the top of my head with a thud. The unidentified object that hit my head fell to the left.

I groped around and grabbed ‘it’.

It was a familiar form.

He brought it to his nose with trembling hands.

A fragrant and sweet smell.

Crunch!

Quilbian bit into it without hesitation. The sweet juice spreading in his mouth made his whole body tingle.

It was an apple that fell from the sky.

(Continued in next episode)